When I captured this clutch of fungi engaged in consuming this old tree down by the river, I had a feeling that I’d been here before. And so I had — getting on for seven years ago; it was 7/1/2017 when this symbiosis was seen from another angle. They’re taking their time, as the tree carcass doesn’t seem any smaller than it did back then. But if you are a fungus, I guess you see time differently.
For all that it represents the time of the year’s decline into old age there is something fine about autumn. It permits us to see the ways the cycle of life keeps itself turning. Fungi come into their own, consuming what they can before the cold freezes things up entirely.
Growing out of a tree trunk, in the woods over the road, spotted while walking off a big roast dinner. Well, OK, it’s probably not a real leprechaun village, but who knows for sure.
Mind you, come to think of it, I don’t live in Ireland.
Being 42 